The invention relates to general radiography and, more particularly, to methods and systems providing fast Dual Energy (“DE”) radiography for medical imaging and similar applications.
Generally, an X-ray generated by an X-ray tube may pass through a patient and then be detected by an x-ray detector. Detected X-ray levels may then be used to generate an image of the patient. To improve the quality of the image, two exposures of X-rays may be utilized, each at a different energy level. Such an approach is referred to as “dual energy” radiography.
One objective of dual energy radiography is to obtain images that enhance contrast separation within the image by utilizing two scans at these different energy spectra. For example, a dual energy approach may facilitate an extraction of bone information or soft tissue information—or separate any two different arbitrary materials. There is also evidence that dual energy can improve coronary artery calcium detection, which is an indicator of cardiovascular disease. Note, however, that two images need to be generated (low energy and high energy), and there may be a delay between the two images due to the X-ray tube switching and detector read out time (e.g., a 150 ms delay). This could cause mis-registration between the two images because of patient/anatomy motion in that time period, which can cause blurring and/or artifacts in the final image.
Therefore, it would be desirable to design an apparatus and method to provide improved dual energy switching and energy capture.